Wicken Fen

Wicken Fen
Site of Special Scientific Interest
LocationCambridgeshire
Grid referenceTL 554 701[1]
InterestBiological
Area254.5 hectares[1]
Notification1983[1]
Location mapMagic Map
Designations
Official nameWicken Fen
Designated12 September 1995
Reference no.752[2]

Wicken Fen is a 254.5-hectare (629-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Wicken in Cambridgeshire.[1][3] It is also a National Nature Reserve,[4] and a Nature Conservation Review site.[5] It is protected by international designations as a Ramsar wetland site of international importance,[6] and part of the Fenland Special Area of Conservation under the Habitats Directive.[7][8]

A large part of it is owned and managed by the National Trust.[9] It is one of Britain's oldest nature reserves, and was the first reserve cared for by the National Trust, starting in 1899.[10] The first parcel of land for the reserve was donated to the Trust by Charles Rothschild in 1901.[11] The reserve includes fenland, farmland, marsh, and reedbeds. Wicken Fen is one of only four wild fens that still survive in the enormous Great Fen Basin area of East Anglia. There 99.9% of the former fens have been replaced by arable cultivation.

  1. ^ a b c d "Designated Sites View: Wicken Fen". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  2. ^ "Wicken Fen". Ramsar Sites Information Service. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  3. ^ "Map of Wicken Fen". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  4. ^ "Cambridgeshire's National Nature Reserves". Natural England. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  5. ^ Ratcliffe, Derek, ed. (1977). A Nature Conservation Review. Vol. 2. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 212. ISBN 0521-21403-3.
  6. ^ "Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands (RIS): Wicken Fen" (PDF). Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  7. ^ "Fenland SAC". Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  8. ^ "Fenland SAC (Woodwalton Fen, Wicken Fen & Chippenham Fen)" (PDF). Cambridgeshire County Council. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  9. ^ "Wicken Fen Nature Reserve". National Trust. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  10. ^ "Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve". Wicken Fen..
  11. ^ Tim Sands. Wildlife in Trust: a hundred years of nature conservation. The Wildlife Trusts, 2012. Page 672.